shadows, superheroes and kites

Another beautiful day in ATX. Had some fun with chalk and shadows. We traced our shadows so we could see them changing, as the sun went down.

My superheroes! Hit another consignment sale this morning and scored a costume for Conner! They enjoyed catching all manner of bad guys this afternoon. The world is now a safer place.

Tomorrow is the annual kite festival! We went last year and have been looking forward to going again! The boys wanted to practice flying their kites.

We flew kites for about 30 min. I think Shep ran the entire time. At first, he kept running in circles, so the kite would never lift off. It was pretty funny. He got the hang of it and ran up and down the street non-stop. Remember being a kid and just running and running and never getting tired? Those were the days.

I love my little superheroes!

friday fun

Am I the only one who can barely make it through Friday sometimes? I feel like I just run out of ideas for things to do! The apartment complex across the street has a sand volleyball court. The boys have been begging to play over there. I'm kind of (well, definitely) a rule follower and have never ventured over there since we don't live there. After lunch I surprised the boys by packing them up and some cars and walking over to play. I figured we needed to try it out before the sand got too hot, which could be soon. It was a big hit. It was hard to pull them away for rest time.

I brought a book (wishful thinking!), but gave up and we just played in the sand.

Think we need to pull the sunscreen out already.

Conner discovered a cool tree with a perfect spot to sit in. Shep discovered a big stick which became a really big gun for shooting all sorts of wild sea creatures. He's standing watch here.

We threw pieces of bark and watched the clouds drift by. There was a cloud that looked like a squashed teddy bear and one that looked like a green and red dragon. The cloud shapes they come up with are really quite hilarious.

Coming up with some more crazy cloud shapes. Sometimes I wonder if they really think the cloud looks like that or they're just trying to think of something exciting to say.

This afternoon we made brownies. Always a fun option if you can't think of anything else to do

and your daddy will have been at school 14 hrs that day. Graduation can't come soon enough for this mommy!

Happy Friday!

finally some progress

After sleeping pretty well for a long time, the past 4-6 months have been rough with Shep. He would have a few good stretches every once in awhile and I'd think we were past it, but then he'd go back to waking up anywhere from 1-4 times a night. I tried everything. Watched what he ate, cut out almost all tv/movies (which I wanted to do anyway) and took away privileges. He has never slept with us, so it wasn't like we were breaking an old habit and we definitely weren't going to start that now. I was at a complete loss. Sometimes he seemed to be having dreams, but mostly it seemed he just wanted to be with me. He wanted to sleep with me. It was getting more difficult to get him back in his bed. I was exhausted and felt like a bad Mom. Try being 8 months pregnant and dealing with a beligerant 2 1/2 up to 4 times a night. With a new baby coming in just a month and a half I was getting more and more worried. (Sometimes I wondered if it was anxiety about the new baby?)

Meet blue bag. This simple paper sack has changed my life in the past 5 nights.


I've never done a rewards chart before and I decided desperate times called for desperate measures. I was not wanting to go the "lock my door so my child can't get in route," but something had to be done. I read some sleep rules for preschool age kids in one of my many sleep books and decided to go for it. Even though Conner rarely gets up during the night, I decided to include him in hopes that if Shep saw Conner obeying the rules and collecting prizes, he'd want to participate, too.




You see, that blue bag is full of prizes and very cool prizes, I might add. The first night Shep woke up at 11 pm, 3 am, 5 am and 6 am and then came running in my room at 7 am exclaiming, "It's 7-0-0. Now I get a prize!!!" Um, no. I don't think you understand rules, Shep. Conner did get a prize and after that, Shep got it. The next night was better, but not good enough for a prize. I was proud he was trying, but I knew I had to be tough and not budge on what it took to get a prize. Finally, the 3rd morning he got to pick a prize. Each day has gotten better. I really can't believe it. Last night he slept all night and came quietly in my room around 6:40 asking for help to go to the bathroom. He then, completely umprompted walked back into his room and got in bed until 7 am. I had to pick my chin off the floor.

If I had known how fast this would work, I would have done this a LONG time ago.

Conner's hat

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Conner who loved hats. One day he got a super cool brown hat and they became inseparable. I don't remember exactly when we got it, but here's one of the earliest pictures I found of it circa October 2010. He would have been 2 yrs, 9 months.

Conner and his hat had many memories together. They rode on Thomas the Tank engine and climbed trees.


March 2011- they hunted Easter eggs together.

Then it started getting small, for Conner was growing.

The hat even made it until 2012 and helped Conner blow out four candles on his birthday cake. You can see it's very small now.

Then one day, the hat got lost (it's still lost, but I keep thinking we'll find it one day). It was too small, but Conner loved it. His mommy had gotten him a new hat, but it just wasn't the same. He wore the new hat once, but said it hurt his ears and he refused to wear it.

So, then he found his mater hat and decided that would be the new hat. Oh, well. Maybe he'll decide to give the blue hat another chance someday. He keeps saying he'll wear it on Saturday, but then when it's Saturday, he says he'll try it on Tuesday. His mommy likes the blue hat, but I guess Mater it will be for now:) I just read this to him and now he said he'll try the blue hat again this summer.

matching

When I was younger I always thought I'd be a "matchey" Mom with my kids and I did match them sometimes when they were really little, but rarely do anymore. Mostly because it's not economical. Shep just wears all Conner's clothes from the year before (they're almost the same size now, so not sure how much longer that will work!) Also, because Shep refuses to wear anything I suggest. Shep and getting dressed don't get along very well.

They were actually sort of matching the yesterday, so I tried to snap some pictures. Good ol' $5 Old Navy shirts. Love that place.

Does anyone eles' kids get really silly when you pull the camera out??? Not exactly the shots I was going for, but hey, they capture the moment.

The boys and I went to a big consignment sale this morning. I didn't find what I was looking for, but did score a Super Man costume for $2. Here is one happy little boy. You can't call him Shep anymore, he's Super Man and will only answer to that.

No, I don't make my bed...pretty pointless. The covers and pillows just end up on the floor anyway. When I do make it, it's even more incentive to mess up.

Oh, we watched Downton Abbey for the first time last night. Think I'm hooked.

wigs and a log cabin

The boys and I have been doing a little unit study on presidents, particularly Washington and Lincoln the last two days. We've read books, colored and done some simple crafts. This Mom is grateful for the internet and all the ideas out there for uncreative people like me!

Conner loves word games. Here he is cracking an alphabet code to solve a puzzle about George Washington. The answer: "George Washington was the first US president."


Yesterday, we talked about George Washington and made wigs.

Today was Lincoln and we made a log cabin. Conner was very intrigued by the book recounting how when Lincoln was 7 years old he helped his father build the family a new log cabin when they moved to Indiana. He said he wants to do that when he's 7.

You can see from the picture there was quite a bit of peanut butter licking going on.

Zack's been out of town, so it's been a fun project for us. Tomorrow we're going to make a top hat like Lincoln and do a money sorting game since most of our coins have presidents on them.

Happy President's Day!

v-day fun!

I love Valentine's day. Warning: the following pictures contain large amounts of chocolate.

Last night the apartment office had a chocolate fountain. Of course, we had to check it out. Like the little pajama biker?


Conner with all the loot from his v-day party at school.

Opening their card and candy box this morning.

Yummy pink wheat pancakes with a little whipped cream and fruit.

This morning the boys made chocolate covered strawberries. We were going to give them out to some friends, but I caught Shep lapping up the chocolate.

Serious little strawberry dipper.

We still had some chocolate left, so we dipped some pretzels next.

Oh, so yummy.

It took great restraint, but I only had two.

31 wks, 2 days. Oh the joy of being pregnant for all the major eating holidays. Lately, I've hit the "I feel like I've been pregnant forever" stage. I was thinking about something we're doing next month and the next thought was, "And I'll still be pregnant." Anyone relate??

It was such a gorgeous day. After rest time we headed to Amy's for some ice cream and park time. The boys got their usual: chocolate ice cream with m&m's and gummy bears. Doesn't that sound good? I didn't get anything, but did steal a bite or two from Conner's.

Happy Valentine's Day!